Lirio

Santinho beach @Florianopolis in the south of Brazil.....A lovely spring day.....

10 hours ago, mysty said:

Thus begins the winter of my discontent.....

 

Mysty, and here summer is finally coming and yesterday (national holiday) we had a very very hot day. I do not like this days, I cant stand hot days.... can we move to somewhere that is always spring? No cold winter, no hot summer!

18 hours ago, jpalbny said:

Tonight's low in the Albany area is 22F so I'm expecting a killing frost. So I picked all of the full-sized tomatoes from the garden yesterday. What to do with a bunch of green tomatoes?

 

I could have made a batch of chutney but we don't really eat that very much so it would probably be a wasted effort. Green tomato ketchup sounded very interesting but no time to fuss with canning it.

 

So I found a recipe for pasta with green tomato sauce. Interesting idea! To prepare, I chopped a bunch of unripe tomatoes and cooked them in olive oil and garlic, with what was left of the fresh herbs from the garden.

 

 

It reduced very well after a half hour on the stove, and even the green tomatoes softened nicely. The olive oil and garlic tempered the tartness of the unripe tomatoes. And a fresh chili pepper added some heat.

 

 

Nice dish! With rigatoni and grated Parmesan to finish.

 

 

Now some last-minute preparation for tomorrow's flight to Helsinki! After a year, and a cancelation, looks like it will finally happen.

 

I don't think that I can fit my tripod in the carryon so I'll have to come up with another way to hold the camera still... Or maybe I'll just enjoy the aurora and not worry about pictures... (that's so likely).

Looks great.

Have a nice trip and should possible, post some pictures!

1 hour ago, hoya68 said:

I am on Silver Cloud Antarctica cruise  Two days ago I was feeling  lousy and went to the clinic' and   tested positive for COVID. and was   told to quarrantine in cabinat different times and are meals do not arrive at the sanme time. for five days, Dear wife  tested  negative but agreed to quarrantine. Feeling like I have a bad headcold. Unfortunately the only treatment is for symptoms. I find it amazing that there is no  Paxlovid on board. Thank God I have had all vaccines and boosters which tend to result in less serious symptons. Apparently Silversea's definition of fully vaccinated is one shot and one booster. Clearly insufficient. Don't know if there are other cases but there was a lot of coughing ans sneezing. Protocols are hit and miss. When I was escorted from the clinic thera was crew member following me in a hazmat suit spraying the hallway behind me, The nurse who has visited our cabin only wears a mask.. For the first few days our butler wore an apron and mask until last night when he sheepishly came in a full hazmat suit. We are getting room service three times a day, although if we order from the restaurant and the room service menu  we have to order  at different times and do not receive our meals at the same time.

All in all we cannot fault the service staff who are trying to make this ordeal more comfotable. However the COVID protocols leave much to be desired. fom inadequate vaccination requirements to lack  of essential medication. I do not know if there are any other cases on board, but a person with serious COVID may be toast given lack of nedication and remoteness of any treatment facilities.

 

I hope you get well soon!

1 hour ago, Tothesunset said:

As a broad rule of thumb: If you would replace "who" with "he" then you use "whom" where you would use "him". For example:

 

Will he win? Who will win? 

 

It was taken by him. It was taken by whom? 

 

You got it from him? You got it from whom? 

 

Good enough for government work. 😏

This is the type of question for an exam of proficiency in English....

6 hours ago, lincslady said:

I did both languages, and German!   I did jib at Greek, however.  The French has been useful over the years, because of course living where we do a holiday trip to France has been a frequent occurrence (though not since Brexit, for me anyway), and my vocab. for food and drink and hotels has been kept going, though a philosophical discussion would be difficult.  I can imagine that in Oz the Asian languages, plus maybe modern Greek and Italian would be much more useful.  The only real use I have had for the Latin has been for medical terms.

In Brazil you can choose English, Spanish or French. But currently hardly anyone choose French. In order to go to university you are tested in one of them (but exam is very very basic). To get a MSc you need to be fluent in one of them and to get a Phd you need to be fluent in two.

Newspaper in Brazil showing Majestic Princess with 800 cases of covid arrived in Sydney yesterday. 😨

2 hours ago, zqtchas said:

This is where the Whisper will be.

Auckland to Sydney  

Silver Whisper - 15 Days  

January 8, 2023 VoyageWH230108015  

Date Arrive Depart  

8 Auckland, New Zealand  

7:00 PM  

9 Tauranga, New Zealand  

8:00 AM 6:00 PM  

10 Day at sea  

11 Picton, New Zealand 8:00 AM 7:00 PM  

12 Wellington, New Zealand  

8:00 AM 7:00 PM  

13 Akaroa, New Zealand 8:00 AM 6:00 PM  

14 Dunedin (Port  

Chalmers), New Zealand  

8:00 AM 6:00 PM  

15 Cruising Milford  

Sound, New Zealand  

4:00 PM 7:00 PM  

16 Day at sea  

I will be in Christchurch from 4-8 january, in Akaroa on 7. So we will miss each other. I will arrive Auckland 8th in the evening. It is a great trip you will enjoy! Do you have the tours in each city?

2 hours ago, mysty said:

It's the beginning of a new decade for me today.   I made it to 70.  I intend to approach this new beginning with fearless optimism!  Dinner at our favourite restaurant Black Tartan Kitchen tonight.   And a bonus......Myster is not a flower-giving lad.  I never cared because he shows his love and support without blooms.   However,  yesterday the dear lad showered me with roses.  Made my heart sing!

 

Have a great day todat and ever!!!!

15 hours ago, zqtchas said:

It said on the print out something about filling out a form on arrival to travel around.

The ships people will probably instruct you and offer guidance.

Great coolers. I will be in NZ from Dec. 27 to Jan.27. Who knows we see each other there......Have a great cruise.

This is in south of Brazil earlier today. snow in november. Never ever before was recorded snow in november. In this area it is usual to have snow once and while during winter (june to august) but never in november.

In Rio de Janeiro today (national holiday) and we have 20oC and no beach, we are miserable with this weather....

Weekend in Sao Paulo (spring time). 

At Japanese Center (Brazil has the largest japanese population outside Japan, most of them living in Sao Paulo).

And at Ibirapuera park.

15 hours ago, QueSeraSera said:

Sad day in Virginia today, we took one of our 2 dogs to the vet, he just seemed tired and at times having trouble breathing.  While being x-rayed, he went into labored breathing with blood pressure dropping, they rushed him back to the room where we were waiting and he died in our arms.

 

The world is a bit poorer without Grover in it.  Much larger impact on us to lose him.

 

QSS so sad. My cat died 2 weeks ago and the house is so empty.

2 hours ago, zqtchas said:

Ready for Halloween?

spring in the Mountain. 

19 minutes ago, alithecat said:

Check your Silversea itinerary. On our excursion cruise, which starts & ends in Kang., Silversea has included a charter flight to/from Reykjavik. That's also where their pre-cruise hotel is.

In our Silversea cruise last August there was alson an option to a charter flight to US.

My best wishes for those in Florida.

Keep us posted.

Tourist thing, but it is ok to entertain guests.

I must take a course with JP how to write and take pictures of food!

So today I decied to cook for some friends. Salad + rice with duck. We used lava salt from Iceland, wines and chocolates from New Zealand.

Thank you @Host Jazzbeau and @jpalbny

I visited the Dali Museum this morning. Tomorrow get back home.

I will be in Tampa this week to attend a conference. I will have 1 free day. Any recomendation? I do not want to go to any park....

2 minutes ago, Lirio said:

yes, my husband got covid and he stayed 6 days in isolation. we still had opportunity to enjoy the other days and we will be back next year.

Thanks for the infformation about the smell.....

6 minutes ago, jpalbny said:

Recently, I read a very interesting post about sewer odors in the bathroom of cruise ships. There's a poster on the River Cruise boards (chengkp75) who has a lot of knowledge about the mechanical systems of cruise ships. He shared a tip in posts #8 and 10 of this thread:

 

 

I will definitely keep this in mind because it makes perfect sense to me. We have a guest bathroom in our house that doesn't get used for long periods of time and the same thing can happen when the water evaporates in the traps.

 

***

 

Lirio - thanks for your review! If I remember correctly, you had planned a longer stay in Iceland post-cruise but your plans were derailed by Covid? I hope you have recovered and are feeling back to normal. 

 

yes, my husband got covid and he stayed 6 days in isolation. we still had opportunity to enjoy the other days and we will be back next year.

39 minutes ago, highplanesdrifters said:

Thanks @Lirio for posting about the Wind and west Greenland.  Would also love to hear more about your excursions and how things are on the Wind. Other than the shower issues, any other problems?  Thanks again.

I will write a review of ports and excursions and post pictures.

10 hours ago, Host Jazzbeau said:

Where you in the same hotel (Hilton Nordica) at the end of the cruise?  Did you get a room upgrade before the cruise because you had booked 2 nights on your own?  [We're Hilton Gold, so they often treat us very well.]  Just seems odd that Silversea would have different room categories for the pre- and post-cruise hotels.

We stayed both times in Hilton Nordica.

Our own reservation was to a de-luxe room, not standard one. When we arrived at the hotel, we informed that we would stay for 2 nights: 1 with our own reservation and the second with Silversea reservation. We asked to be in the same room and the hotel agreed upon.

About Silversea reservation I must say that we informed we would need the pre cruise hotel very early in the process. But we only informed Silversea that we would need the post cruise hotel very late in the process, and maybe it was the only room left.

In both occasion the hotel was fully booked.

Appologies for any typo.....